Football: Juventus star Fagioli banned for gambling offences

Italy and Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli's season is all but over after the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) banned the 22-year-old for seven months for gambling offences.

Fagioli himself alerted the federation to bets he had placed on football matches, an illegal activity for professional footballers, and has been able to negotiate a more lenient punishment by admitting his guilt and co-operating with the authorities. Betting offences in professional football usually carry a minimum ban of three years.

Officially, Fagioli's ban is for 12 months, but five of those have been commuted into a "treatment plan" centered on combating gambling addiction, for which the player has already been seeing a therapist.

In addition to a €12,500 (roughly $13,200) fine, Fagioli will take part in "at least 10 public meetings to be held within five months, at amateur sports associations and both local football federation and gambling addiction recovery centers," according to an FIGC program.

Fagioli, who has made one appearance for Italy, is a product of Juventus' youth academy and, after spending last season on loan at Serie B side Cremonese, has featured in the squad for all eight of Juventus' Serie A fixtures so far this season, including three starts and three substitute appearances.

But it will now be May before he returns to action, potentially for the last two games of the season, adding to a Juventus absentee list which already includes French star Paul Pogba, who is currently awaiting the verdict of an investigation after he failed a doping test earlier this month.

Criminal probe into illegal gambling platforms

Meanwhile, two other Italian players, Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo, were released from the European champions' training camp last week following questioning by state prosecutors as part of a criminal probe into the use of illegal gambling platforms allegedly linked to organized crime.

Zaniolo's lawyer told the Gazzetta dello Sport on Sunday that the Aston Villa forward has never gambled on football but that "it's possible he played card games like poker and blackjack on illegal platforms."

Tonali's agent admitted that the Newcastle United midfielder had an "illness," saying: "Sandro is shaken up by the situation, but he has already started to fight back. He's always been a fighter and now he's taken on his biggest challenge."

There is no indication that either Fagiolo, Zaniolo or Tonali gambled on their own teams' matches, nor that they were involved in match fixing.

In 2006, Italian football was rocked by a major match-fixing scandal, dubbed Calciopoli, which resulted in Juventus being stripped of their 2004–05 Serie A title and relegated to Serie B.

mf/msh (AFP, AP)